Mexico City
As they filed into Mexico City International Airport last week, government employees handed them free ham-and-cheese sandwiches, Mexican ID cards and information directing them to social services in the capital.
“Welcome back!” a cheerful government worker called out, taking down names and phone numbers.
Then the men, who had spent as many as 20 years in the United States before being caught and held in detention for several weeks, walked out into a Mexico many of them barely remember, where job opportunities are scarce and worries about the worst inflation in a decade await them.
In the wake of new enforcement policies announced by the Trump administration last week that dramatically expand the pool of undocumented immigrants targeted for deportation, Mexico is bracing for an influx of men and women like them. Their arrival — along with a surge of undocumented immigrants leaving the United States voluntarily — promises to transform Mexican society in the same way their departure did.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the number of U.S. government flights landing in Mexico City loaded with deportees has jumped from two a week under President Barack Obama to three, Mexican officials said. The arrivals include convicted felons but also many without criminal records.
The numbers of immigrants deported from the United States waned in the final years of the Obama administration, which took steps to focus enforcement on hardened criminals and recent arrivals.
Trump, who made immigration enforcement a centerpiece of his campaign, has been clear that he views illegal immigrants as potential security threats and competitors to Americans for jobs. This week, he told journalists at a private lunch that he might be open to a comprehensive immigration overhaul that includes a path to legal status for those who had not committed crimes.
But Trump did not mention such a plan in his remarks to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, emphasizing his deportation initiatives instead.
About 500 deported Mexicans, including some who had been picked up when Obama was in office, are arriving here daily.
“Many of these people come not knowing how to speak Spanish,” said Amalia Garcia, secretary of Mexico City’s labor department, which serves as a point of contact for the deportees. “They come feeling very bitter, very ashamed and very hurt.”
More returnees means lower wages for everybody in blue-collar industries such as construction and automobile manufacturing, where competition for jobs is likely to increase, economists say.
Moreover, the loss of remittances from the United States — Mexico’s second-largest source of revenue at roughly $25 billion last year — could have devastating effects, particularly in rural areas.
At the same time, though, there will be more English-speaking Mexicans entering the workforce who’ve honed their skills in the United States, a development that in the long run could position Mexico to be a stronger player in the global economy, analysts say.
The Mexican government hopes to tap into that potential — and to diminish the likelihood that deportees will try their luck again across the U.S.-Mexico border, where the Trump administration plans to build a wall.